The present invention relates to a sorting apparatus for the material outlet of a machine for crushing or breaking-up scrap. The machine has a horizontally disposed hammer crusher or breaker rotor that is disposed in a housing, the bottom of which is trough-shaped. A material inlet that extends to the rotor and includes an anvil is provided at the downwardly rotating side of the rotor, and an impact or deflection chamber that has outlet opening means is disposed above the rotor.
Scrap pieces of various shapes and sizes are produced when scrap, such as automobile bodies or waste scrap, is crushed or broken-up in machines that have a horizontally disposed hammer crusher or breaker rotor. To further process the broken-up scrap, it is necessary that the individual pieces of scrap not exceed a desired size. In order to maintain as great a throughput of scrap as possible with such breaking-up machines, scrap pieces having no more than the desired maximum dimensions should leave the working area of the hammers as quickly as possible.
To accomplish this requirement, it is known to dispose gratings in the wall of the impact or deflection chamber that is disposed above the hammer breaker rotor, with this grating making it possible for pieces of scrap up t o the desired maximum size to be withdrawn outwardly (see U.S. patent application Ser. No. 791,220 Hausler et al., filed Oct. 25, 1985, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,791 Hausler et al. which issued Mar. 15, 1988 and belongs to the assignee of the present application). Unfortunately, such gratings in the form of material outlets have the drawback that when dirty scrap, such as waste scrap or scrap from automobile bodies, is broken up, the gratings become clogged, even though a number of broken-up and compressed pieces of scrap have already obtained the desired dimensions. Balls of scrap then build up ahead of the grating; these balls either drop off suddenly by themselves, hence leading to blockage of the hammer breaker rotor, or the rotor must be stopped, a flap in the wall of the housing must be opened and the balls must be removed from the outside by actually reaching into the apparatus.
Another drawback of having such gratings in the material outlet is that during operation of the crushing or breaking-up machine, there is no possibility of altering the presettings for the desired maximum dimensions of the broken-up and compressed pieces of scrap. This can be accomplished only when the apparatus is shut down and the grating is replaced with a grating that has a different gap width or mesh size.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a sorting apparatus of the aforementioned general size where scrap pieces of up to the desired maximum dimensions can leave the apparatus as quickly as possible, with the presettings for the desired maximum dimensions of the scrap pieces being capable of being altered during operation of the breaking-up machine and the sorting apparatus.